Beating Jonathan Taylor usually starts with a simple idea and ends with a lot of pain: you have to tackle him early, and you have to keep him from ever feeling like he’s broken free. That’s the challenge facing the Ravens defense as it gets ready for the Colts, and it may force Jesse Minter to adjust the way he wants to handle the run game.
Minter has built his reputation on taking the air out of opposing rushing attacks without needing to overload the box. During his two seasons running Chargers defenses, that unit finished third in the NFL in Expected Points Added against the run with only three defensive linemen on the field, and fifth in success rate in those situations. Even when he leaned on five or more defensive backs, the group still finished fifth in rush EPA.
But Baltimore is dealing with its own personnel questions, and the matchup with Taylor puts those right in the spotlight. The Colts back has the kind of blend that forces a defense to rethink its plan: speed, power, balance and enough vision to punish any missed angle. Minter knows exactly what kind of problem he is preparing for.
“He is just a great back,” Minter said. “He has great balance.
He is very strong. He has great vision.
He has a really good sense of the angles that people are taking on him and how to make people miss.
“He is the total package. He can take any sort of run scheme.
He can get the tough yards. He can take it to the house.
He can take it inside, outside … One of the top backs in the league, and a challenge we are getting ready for and excited about."
The concern for Baltimore gets sharper if All-Pro defensive tackle Nnamdi Madubuike and emerging inside linebacker Teddye Buchanan can’t go after surgery. The Ravens have more answers on the back end than they do in the front seven, and that makes the run defense harder to trust against a back like Taylor.
Last October, Taylor and the Colts gave Minter’s defense plenty to think about. Indianapolis ran the ball well against his nickel and dime looks, piling up 86 yards on 12 carries.
Against Taylor specifically, though, the damage was worse: 9 carries for 64 yards and three touchdowns, with Taylor averaging more than seven yards per attempt. The Chargers’ subpackages had a 30.8% success rate in that game, their worst showing against a back in those looks.
Taylor also averaged four yards before contact, and Indianapolis moved the chains on 60 percent of its runs against those alignments.
Taylor arrives for this game healthy and fresh, while Baltimore is still trying to get its tackling legs under it after barely playing its starting defense in the preseason. Roquan Smith said the work starts with the basics.
“You definitely have to be prepared to tackle,” said linebacker Roquan Smith, trying to bounce back from a brutal season. ”And then when (you face) great 'RAC' [or] 'YAC' guys, you definitely have to bring your pads, wrap up and run your feet.”
Calais Campbell knows exactly how fast things can go wrong if Taylor reaches the second level. Campbell saw him go for 21 carries, 123 yards and a touchdown against Arizona last season, and he expects the Ravens to need a full group effort if Madubuike is unavailable. Campbell also said coaches have not told him anything about a possible workload change for Week 1, even though he may need closer to 40 snaps than 20.
“When you have a guy that is that explosive,” Campbell notes, “that also has good contact balance, you definitely do not want to let him get to the second level. Because he will turn those eight-yard rushes into touchdowns because he can make a guy miss.
I have seen him do some spectacular things on the football field. We have been really on our front seven about being really good at making him stop his speed early and tackling.
“We have not really had a lot of tackling … That is going to be a big challenge for us for the first game. We have been really pushing it in practice and getting in good position to be able to tackle.
It is a big difference between getting in position and then making those tackles. It is going to be a good challenge, because he is among the best of them at making guys miss.
The biggest thing that I think for us to be successful is we have to all swarm tackle. We have to meet at the ball.”
Taylor’s numbers tell the rest of the story. He ran for 1,500 yards last season, 1,400 the year before, and twice has finished a season with 18 rushing touchdowns.
Exactly how many bodies Minter commits to stopping him should tell the story of the day.
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